PERRY MASON reruns have been playing on a Portland, Oregon TV station every day for 42 years.:
When Patrick McCreery was named general manager at Portland’s Fox KPTV six months ago, corporate bosses gave him a free hand as long as he followed an unwritten 42-year-old rule: Don’t mess with “Perry Mason.”
“It’s untouchable,” McCreery said. “We can add shows and take others off the air, but ‘Perry’ is nothing to fool with.”
[…]Managers don’t know of another U.S. station that’s continuously broadcast “Perry Mason” as long as KPTV, where the show debuted 15 days after ending its nine-year run on CBS. It’s among the least-expensive shows to buy, even as KPTV has moved from showing it on film reels to 1-inch tapes to digital tapes and now digital with closed captioning.
“Most markets don’t want it,” Dunevant said. “They figure that with high-definition sets and 5.1 stereo sound, what viewer is going to want to watch an old black-and-white show? We’ve found very loyal viewers. It’s the linchpin of our daytime programming.”
Sadly, I know many people with zero interest in viewing anything black-and-white . . . or “old” . . . or of good quality. 🙂
I wish they played it in the Seattle area. The series seemed to always be on the daytime/late-night schedules when I lived in the Midwest.
This makes perfect sense to me. There is comfort in an consistent reliable program of vintage stock. It isn’t simply the quality of the show, although that is certainly a factor. KREM TV in Spokane aired MAVERICK re-runs consistently every Saturday afternoon at the same time for YEARS, perhaps they still do. It is nice to know there are somethings that you can count on — Perry Mason EVERY DAY for all of your life in Portland gives one a sense of connection and grounding that cannot be achieved by relentless “newness”
As for the illusion that a b/w show can’t kick ass, recall that THE SAINT b/w episodes in first run syndication on indies beat network fare in the ratings! Go figure.
I wish they showed Perry In this area of the country.
On a related note, a local station does the same thing with Andy Griffith. Been running the show for who knows how long at 5:30 p.m. week days.
I’ve always liked Portland, now I have a reason to like it more.
I grew up watching KPTV… saw my share of Perry Mason’s there, too…